


Jump for Me (and I'll Catch You)

by wonker8



Category: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Genre: Humor, M/M, Off-screen death, Suicide, jumping off of high places
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-12 07:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonker8/pseuds/wonker8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don't you trust me?" </p><p>But that wasn't the issue. That was never the issue.</p><p> </p><p>OR</p><p>The five times Brandt hesitates when Ethan tells him to jump and the one time he didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jump for Me (and I'll Catch You)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for [Ghostocol kink prompt](http://ghotocol-kink.livejournal.com/1494.html?thread=713686): Five times Brandt hesitates when Ethan tells him to jump and the time he no longer hesitates (jumping is literally or metaphorically, here).

1.  
“You _promised_ I wouldn’t have to _jump_!” William Brandt hissed into his comm as he stared down the third story building.

He knew he really didn’t have the time. The drug dealers would catch up to him soon; he could hear the gunshots coming closer. But he couldn’t help but to stop. This hadn’t been part of the plan. They didn’t tell him anything about any jumping off of a three-story building’s roof. Hell, Ethan had promised him that he wouldn’t have to jump in this mission!

“Change of plans, Brandt,” Ethan said matter-of-factly. “You’re going to have to jump.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Will groaned. “Were you even going to tell me that the plans changed? Because… I don’t know… that might be a little _important!_ ”

The gunshots came ever closer.

“Brandt,” Ethan said, almost as if he could hear the gunshots closing in. “Jump.”

Will hesitated because he was standing on the ledge of a three-story building and he wasn’t sure if he would be completely unscathed if he jumped now. He might have a sprained ankle if he was lucky, and working with Ethan Hunt meant giving up on luck. He might as well as just stand there and wait for the drug dealers to just shoot him dead. It would give him a quicker death, really.

“Jump,” Ethan insisted in his ear.

He glanced down at the streets. There was nothing there to even soften the fall! But the gunshots were almost to him now, and he really only had one chance for this. He sighed.

“You sure I’m going to survive?”

“You’ll be fine. Jump.”

Taking a deep breath, Will screwed his eyes tight and jumped down the building.

2.  
“You want me to jump off of a fucking cliff.”

Ethan gave him a proud smile. “It’ll be fun!”

“You want me. To jump. _Off_. Of a fucking _cliff_.”

“Now Brandt, I think you’re overreacting a little-”

“You think?! You just told me to jump off of a cliff! A _cliff_ , Ethan! Fuck… Why can’t Benji do it?”

“Benji’ll be monitoring the cameras.”

“Jane?”

“She’s going to get the data.”

“You?”

“Broken arm. I won’t be able to jump, which is why I’m the extractor for this round.”

“I bet you can still jump.”

Ethan just smiled ruefully and ruffled his hair. “You’ll be fine, Brandt.”  
*  
18 hours later, Will froze on top of the cliff. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he grumbled softly.

The comms picked it up, because soon Ethan was in his ears again. “You have to jump, Brandt.”

“Yeah, Brandt. Take one for the team,” Benji added, snickering under his breath.

“I hate you both,” was William’s only answer.

“Jump.”

Will hesitated again. He was on a cliff, for Pete’s sake! He took a deep breath. “I fucking hate this job.”

“Liar.” Even without seeing it, Will could hear the amused smile in Ethan’s voice. “Brandt, it’s okay. Jump.”

He really hated his team. Will took another deep breath and leapt off of the cliff.

3.  
“Oh, no no no no,” William whispered as he stared helplessly up at the rope that was currently supporting both his and Ethan’s weight. “No no no. You’re not allowed to give up on me.” The rope, unfortunately, disagreed.

He could hear the rope straining under their combined weight. Ethan groaned softly and tugged at Will’s grip on him. “You’re going to have to let me go,” he said softly.

“No. Don’t say that. Don’t you dare. We’re going to be okay. We’re going to be-”

The rope dropped them a few inches. Will cursed under his breath and held on for his dear life, one hand on the rope, the other around Ethan’s bloody hand. Ethan’s hand gave the lightest squeeze back and…

“Ethan!”

Will watched, frozen, as his grip on his team leader’s hand loosened and Ethan plummeted to the dark abyss below them. A million and five thoughts raced through his mind, the one on the forefront being, “I just killed him.” He forced himself to breath calmly, because the rope wouldn’t be able to handle the weight of a panic attack. He closed his eyes, trying hard not to repeat the image of Ethan falling… falling…

“Brandt?”

The voice might as well have killed him. He puffed out a breath he didn’t realized he had been holding. “Ethan?” he called down.

“Jump down, Brandt. It’s okay,” the team leader said.

But what if this was a mirage and he was just dreaming that Ethan had said that? What if Ethan had already died and his mind was just trying to make things easier by making him jump? Will gulped lightly.

“Are you sure?” he called down to the darkness. “I don’t think it’s safe.”

There was a soft laugh from the darkness. Surely he wasn’t imaging that? “Jump, Will,” said the voice of Ethan Hunt. “I’ll catch you.”

Will hesitated. He didn’t know what was down there. And he could very well be hallucinating. Should he take the chance? He glanced up at the rope that was obviously not going to be able to hold him for very long. He took a deep breath. Well, it wasn’t like he had anything to lose, right? He glanced back down into the darkness.

“I better not be going crazy,” he said to the darkness.

And with his eyes shut tight, he jumped safely into Ethan Hunt’s arms.

4.  
“You’ve jumped off of worse things,” Ethan said, staring into Will’s eyes.

And while that was true, Will couldn’t help but to think that this was a little more insane than physically jumping off of high places. He pressed his lips together tightly.

“I don’t know, Ethan,” he admitted. “I just don’t know.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

That wasn’t the issue. That was never the issue. The issue was that Will didn’t trust himself. And when one couldn’t trust oneself, things tended to go wrong. Things that required trust, for example. Things that required one to give everything for another. Things that Ethan was asking of him.

“I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I want you to jump,” Ethan repeated. “Jump and never look back.”

Will hesitated. He just wasn’t sure. What if things didn’t work out? What if someone got hurt? What if he got hurt? What if he wasn’t what Ethan needed? What if he wasn’t what Ethan wanted? Oh gods, what if Ethan called everything off? What if this was just a bad joke? What if, what if, what if?!

“Trust me, Will. Jump.”

A shaky breath left his mouth. He looked at Ethan’s earnest eyes, wondering what he was waiting for. He ran a finger through his hair. To jump or…?

“Alright,” Will said finally. “Okay.”

The relief and happiness in Ethan’s eyes could not be put down in words. And Will was suddenly taken aback by the stunning beauty of that smile. Why didn’t he say yes earlier? Why had he been so scared? Then Ethan crossed the room, closing the space between the two. Ethan’s eyes never left Will’s as he slowly moved his head towards the ex-analyst.

“Will,” Ethan whispered softly.

And William Brandt closed the distance between them, jumping into a loving promise with Ethan.

5.  
“You know, I can’t believe you’re still complaining about jumping off of things,” Benji mentioned one mission, after informing Will that he would be (once again) jumping off of yet another ridiculously high place (this time a bridge). “It’s like… your thing, you know? Like how I never get to wear a mask, Jane seduces the rich guy, and Ethan’s our luck charm that makes the mission go from bad to shitty in matter of seconds.”

“I don’t want it to be my thing,” Will groaned over Ethan’s wounded, “Hey!”

“I don’t like high places. And why do you even need me to jump off of a bridge anyways?”

“Well, we need you to sneak onto the boat. The only way on in this short amount of time is to just jump onto it while it’s passing under the bridge. I’ll be watching the whole operation from the safety of my van. Ethan will be guarding Jane while she waits for you to get the information from the boat to enter into the system.”

It sounded like a fail-safe mission (like most of their mission always did) that couldn’t possibly go wrong (it always did). Will had no complaints to it other than to sigh heavily.

“You know, I’ve never had to jump this many times on active field duty before,” he commented.

Benji brightened as if that was the funniest thing ever. “It’s your _thing._ ”

Ethan patted Will lightly on the arm. “You’ll be fine,” he said softly before pressing a kiss on Will’s forehead.

“Ew! Cooties!”

The two rolled their eyes at Benji.  
*  
“Jump, Will.”

Will stared down the edge of the bridge to the top of the boat. It was a good twenty feet drop, and suddenly, Will wasn’t so sure about this anymore.

“Are you sure that this is the only way?” He was stalling for time, he knew. But he really, really didn’t feel like jumping this time.

“Yes. Jump.”

Why was Ethan so obsessed with him jumping anyways? He was always going off about how Will needed to jump and-

“Will. Now. Jump.”

Gritting his teeth, he hurled himself off of the bridge and onto the boat.

+1.  
Will stared at his cellphone in disbelief. Disavowed. Ethan Hunt had been disavowed.

There was a lump in his throat that he couldn’t dislodge. There was a strange pang in his heart that he had never felt before. Tears glistened in his eyes, which was strange, because he hadn’t cried in a long time. Not since Croatia. Not since Julia… (She’s alive, Will reminded himself. She’s alive). He took a shaky breath in, but it didn’t seem to reach his lungs.

“We’re sorry,” Carter whispered softly to him. But it was as if she was speaking under water.

He nodded numbly, and allowed her to pull him into a hug. Allowed Dunn to pat him lightly on the shoulder. They said more things, probably trying to make him feel better. He honestly didn’t register anything they said. Then they were gone, leaving him alone in the safe house with nothing but the cellphone.

Nothing but the memory of watching the bullets riddle Ethan’s chest. Remember the blood fall, the animalistic howl from his own lips, the slow-motion fall of Ethan’s body. Remember the stench, the screams, the bullets. Remember the feeling of Ethan’s body in his arms as warmth slowly seeped out of the corpse.

Ethan had been shot. Ethan was disavowed. Ethan was dead.

And William Brandt was left with nothing but the cellphone and his memories. He buried his face in his hands, letting the cellphone fall from his hands. He pretended that those sobs weren’t coming from him. He pretended that he wasn’t weeping. He pretended that Ethan was with him, gently stroking his hair and whispering softly that things will be okay.  
*  
He didn’t know how he managed to make his way to the roof of the 30-story hotel that they were using as their safe house. He had no recollection of climbing the stairs or making his way here. All he knew was that he was there now, a step away from the ledge.

What was he doing? He wasn’t the type to do something like this. He shouldn’t be doing something like this. Then why was he making his way over to the ledge? Ethan would disapprove. Ethan would have that stern look on his face; his forehead creasing slightly in a way that Will secretly thought it was cute. He would frown and open his mouth and say-

“Jump.”

Will wasn’t sure who spoke. Maybe it was his mind repeating the word that Ethan had said a lot to him. Maybe it was Ethan’s ghost by his side, asking him to do one more thing so that they could be together again. Maybe it was a trick to kill him so that the two best agents would be gone in one fell swoop.

It really wasn’t fair that all three was just as likely as the other.

Well, he supposed it didn’t really matter. Because his mind had already been made up from the beginning. He stepped onto the ledge.

“Jump, Will.”

There, he heard it again. Will closed his eyes and smiled.

“Alright.”

He didn’t hesitate.


End file.
